EVILE — The Unknown (review)

EVILE — The Unknown album cover Album · 2023 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Kev Rowland
It is difficult to believe that Evile have been going for nearly 20 years now, but here they are back with their sixth album. There have been some changes over the years of course, with original bassist Mike Alexander dying from a pulmonary embolism back in 2009, founding lead guitarist Ol Drake leaving in 2013 for five years, and then him taking over on lead vocals in 2020 when his brother Matt also left. These days Ol Drake is on lead vocals and guitar, Ben Carter (the only musician to stay the course) is on drums, Mike’s replacement Joel Graham is on bass while Adam Smith joined on guitars in 2020, and this is their second album together, following on from ‘Hell Unleashed’.

Evile seemed to be everywhere when they released ‘Enter The Grave’ in 2007, but after 2013’s ‘The Skull’ they had a break from the recording process, which means Ol Drake has appeared on all the albums even though he was not in the band for five years. I didn’t hear the last one, but there is no doubt that the guys have carried on with their earlier Metallica fixation, but like that band one must wonder if their best years are behind them. It is easy to argue that the first four Metallica albums are truly essential, but nothing since, and here we find Evile finding inspiration from ‘Metallica’ and ‘Load’ which is not where I would be headed if it were me. There is undoubtedly a market for that style of music, or at least there was, given that ‘Metallica’ (seems strange to write that, I always think of it as ‘The Black Album’) has sold more than 31 million copies, and many kids grew up playing “Enter Sandman”. The frustrating thing is in the likes of “Sleepless Eyes”, “Out of Sight” and “Balance of Time” the guys show us they have not forgotten they know how to thrash like good ‘uns and they stand out incredibly clearly against the banality and middle of the road style they play for most of the album. If it had been all like this then I know I would have been raving over this as something to discover, but sadly it isn’t. At one point, Evile were showing Metallica and others the way to play meaningful thrash in the 21st Century, let us hope they remember how to do that again in future.
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